Called a "wanderer between worlds" by the Lucerne Festival, Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Comfortable with and seeking out an enormous range of repertoire, Vonsattel displays a musical curiosity and sense of adventure that has gained him many admirers in the US as well as in Europe.

Gilles Vonsattel began touring after capturing the top prize at the prestigious 2002 Naumburg International Piano Competition. He went on to win numerous prizes in major international events such as the Cleveland and Honens competitions, and was the winner of the 2006 Concours de Genève and an Avery Fisher career grant winner. Further more there are successful debuts with Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood and San Francisco Orchestra, along with regular solo and chamber music concerts in Ravinia, Musashino Hall (Tokyo), Wigmore Hall (London), Music@Menlo, Lucerne Festival and the Munich Gasteig. His most recent New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed… a study in intensity” by The New York Times.

Reengaged by the San Francisco Symphony, he has also appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève.

His most recent engagements include the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Berg Chamber Concert with conductor Heinz Holliger), a tour with Jörg Widmann and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart concerti with the Vancouver Symphony and Florida Orchestra, the Montreal and Hartford Symphony Orchestra such as performances at Seoul's LG Arts Centre and many festivals like the Cully Classique, the Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, USA), Bad Kissingen and the Beijing Modern Music Festival, as well as multiple appearances internationally and throughout the United States with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performing music ranging from Beethoven and Dvorak, to Lachenmann and Larcher.

In August 2016 he was Artist in Residence at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. This residency included solo and chamber music such as an orchestra concert with conductor Kent Nagano. Musical partners have been i.a. Arabella Steinbacher, Pinchas Zuckerman, Amanda Forsyth and Avi Avital. March 2017 Gilles Vonsattel and Kent Nagano will continue their collaboration with two concerts of Bernstein's 2nd symphony and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

In Season 2016/17 there will be numerous international solo recitals i.a. at Lincoln Center New York, in Badenweiler such as a China recital tour in fall 2016. Further a duo with Frank Huang at Carnegie Hall, and numerous engagements throughout the US and abroad with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A special highlight is the duo tour with Jörg Widmann in 2018 in North America.

He has performed with chamber music artists such as Frank Huang, Anthony Marwood, Ilya Gringolts, Heinz Holliger, James Ehnes, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Finckel, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Paul Watkins, Emmanuel Pahud, Ida Kavafian and the Swiss Chamber Soloists. Performances brought him together with Quartets such as Pacifica, Orion, Ebène, Danish, Daedalus, Escher and Borromeo. Of particular note is Vonsattel's dedication to and passion for music of contemporary composers. He performed numerous works in Europe and the USA. Recent seasons have included close collaborations with Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. His recording of 2011 with works of Ravel, Debussy, Honegger and Holliger for the Honens/Naxos label has been listed in Timeout Magazine New York's "Top Ten Recordings of the Year".

His most recent CD was published in September 2015 and is a production of Honens Laureate Series. Along with "Shadowlines " of George Benjamin it includes works of Debussy, Scarlatti, Webern and Messiaen.

After studying with pianist David Deveau in Boston, Vonsattel received his B.A. in political science and economics from Columbia University and his M.M. from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Jerome Lowenthal. Since September 2010 he is Assistant Professor of Piano at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist and lives in New York.

In October 2015 he received the Andrew Wolf Award for his outstanding work in chamber music.